“Nothing matters. Nobody cares. We’re all going to die.”
Two weeks ago, Devin Cooley went viral online when he uttered those words in a post-game scrum explaining the mantra he repeats to stay focused during games for the Calgary Flames.
It’s not often that a backup goalie becomes the talk of the hockey world, but Cooley was everywhere.
Not for the first time, it turns out.
“I said it three years ago in San Jose and it went viral then, and this time it blew up again,” Cooley explained. “I got one comment from a guy saying, ‘This guy stole it from a San Jose player who said it last year’ and that was me! I didn’t respond, but I saw it.”
Based on the way he’s been playing this season, maybe we should all learn a lesson from Cooley and start repeating cryptic reminders of our own mortality in high-pressure situations. It’s working for him, that’s for sure.
After an underwhelming training camp, Cooley has been exceptional this season.
He’s made nine appearances and while he’s only got a 3-2-1 record, that’s largely due to a lack of run support when he’s been in the crease. The 28-year-old has a .930 save percentage, a 2.01 goals-against average and has won his last three starts.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he’s been very good-to-great every time the Flames have called on him to play, including in the three games where the team has pulled starter Dustin Wolf and brought in Cooley in relief.
On Friday afternoon, he put in another outstanding performance, turning away 37 of the 40 shots he faced from the Florida Panthers in the Flames’ dramatic 5-3 win.
“He’s been outstanding,” Wolf said. “Every single game he’s come in, even in games where I haven’t been at my best, he’s come in and gave our team a chance to get back in games. Everyone loves him, you can hear him around and he’s the most energetic guy in here.
“He loves life and he makes it fun. I just try to hang out with him as much as I can.”
Does Wolf repeat a similar mantra to the one Cooley relies on to keep calm? No, that’s very much unique to Cooley.
“At the same time, we are all going to die at some point,” Wolf said with a laugh. “He’s not lying.”
Devin Cooley wants to set the record straight on one thing related to the mantra: He doesn’t live his life that way.
Every goalie has their quirks, of course, but it’s been important for the Flames that Cooley has found a way to adjust his game to the NHL. While he’d played six games for the Sharks back in 2023-24, he didn’t get any playing time with the Flames last year after signing in the summer of 2024.
Instead, he got his playing time with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL. In the first half of the season, he was exceptional. He suffered a concussion mid-season, though, and never really recovered.
An underwhelming training camp this year led to serious doubts about whether he was capable of filling in for the Flames when Wolf needed a rest, but it took him all of one game to calm those fears.
“What he did in Utah (in his first start on Oct. 15), you come in in that situation and have a game like that, it cranks up the belief his teammates have in him, but it’s around everyone else around,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “You think, ‘Yeah, OK, this guy can do the job.’ We saw it for half a year in the American League, he was the best player in the American League, and now I think the work that he and (Flames goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera) have put in from the early stages of the year have made him ready for the starts he’s getting and is going to be getting.”
Huska chuckled to himself when he was asked about Cooley’s mantra, saying simple “When I hear things like that, I just think ‘goalie’. “
But nobody’s going to tell Cooley to stop doing what works. If that’s reminding himself over and over again that nothing matters and we’re all going to die, so be it.
Cooley, though, did want to set the record straight on one thing related to the mantra.
“I feel like I should clarify that I don’t live my life like that,” Cooley said. “I’m not always so negative, you know? That’s not how I live my life.
“Another thing I’ve changed this year a little bit, is a lot of people are like, ‘You don’t want to get too high, you don’t want to get too low’ and absolutely, when you’re playing you want to stay level-headed. But I’ve really started to enjoy the positive moments. My first win? Awesome. When I play well? Hell yeah, I’m stoked, I’m excited. When things go wrong I’m going to stay level-headed and not get upset. But I think you can enjoy when things are going really well and have fun with it.”